Light and Shadow are two sides of the same coin..

Got tagged by @alinkbetweenportraits so I’m doing this for ALBW!Zelda.

1. Zelda lost her mother to an illness when she was only seven years of age. Her health was already somewhat fragile and going through a pregnancy unfortunately weakened her immune system even further after she gave birth, and thus made her more susceptible to diseases and such. 2. Zelda has a doll of ALttP!Link that was hand made by her mother with the finest materials before she passed away. She used this doll to tell Zelda the story of how the Princess and Legendary Hero defeated Ganon every night before she went to sleep.

3. Zelda likes to doodle while taking notes for her lessons, regardless of who is giving them. Most of the doodles are of hearts and Link for very very obvious reasons.

4. Zelda is very skilled at archery and could give Link a run for his money. She learned how to wield a bow at a young age, so she would be able to defend herself in some way. She was also taught a few basic Sheikah techniques by Impa for the same reason.

5. Zelda developed a fear of thunderstorms after being plagued by a reoccurring nightmare of her being trapped in the castle dungeon after witnessing the murder of her father and crying out for help. She has no idea why she keeps having this nightmare or why it seems so familiar.

6. Zelda’s father passed away when she was 13. She had drank some bad wine and fell very ill. The king insisted on getting the medicine himself, but he was unfortunately attacked by bandits on his way back to the castle and later succumbed to his injuries over night despite the best efforts of the castle infirmary doctor.

7. Zelda still likes to look at the portrait of her ancestor(ALttP!Zelda) and her hero(ALttP!Link) and speaks to the painting as if she were actually talking to the late queen and hero herself. She usually only does so if she is stressed about something.

Link chuckled at his wife’s valiant efforts to keep up with his hurricane of puns, though he knew from experience that she was probably running out of ideas at this point. He sighed a bit in resignation- he really did have a surprisingly large repertoire of bone-related puns he had built up over the centuries, but there were other things he had missed besides inundating people with terrible jokes.

His eyes softened, and he brought a hand up to caress his princess’ face once again. His voice was low and gentle as he asked “Well, did you have something else in mind?”

A light blush spread across her cheeks as Link began to caress her face. “I..um..not really..” she admitted, feeling a bit guilty that she had no ideas for what they could do.

Link gasped dramatically, stepping a bit away from her in mock outrage, though he couldn’t hide the grin at her return fire. “My love, how could you be so cruel? It’s like you don’t have a funny bone in your body! Here I’ve been, wasting away for centuries with no one to tell my skele-ton of puns to! I’ve got so many, we could start a skull, and teach all of Hyrule’s children my clever wordplay.” he rambled, and it was clear that unless she stopped him Link would stand there telling dorky puns for a hundred years more.

Link frowned when her tears started to fall again. He raised a hand to her cheek, tilting her face upwards a little so he could bend down and kiss the corner of her eye. “Shhh, it’s ok Zelda.” he soothed, nuzzling against her face. “You don’t need to apologize,” he continued “I wish you’d told me, but only because dealing with something only you remember… sorta sucks. It’s ok darling.” He kissed her again, small gentle little pecks across her cheek as his thumb brushed the other.

His expression then turned wry, and he smirked a little at her suggestion. “I feel like being the sorry ghosts we are is what got us into this mess in the first place, my dear. But,” he sighed, somewhat dramatically “I don’t know about you, but I think it might be a while yet before I stop feeling guilty at least. But then again, knowing us, I suppose that’s tibia ‘xpected.” he finished with an impish grin, wagging his eyebrows outrageously at her.

“I’m sorry..” she spoke quietly, feeling a bit ashamed herself for keeping everything a secret when they had been alive. A light blush then spread across her cheeks as she was nuzzled and her lips formed a small before she began to giggle a little at all the small pecks that Link was placing across her cheek. He had always known how to cheer her up and it seemed to carry on even after their deaths.

Link gasped a little at her admission, his grip on her loosening slightly. “You… you remember?” he asked, voice soft and breathless in his surprise. When they were younger, he had been somewhat disappointed that she didn’t remember anything, but it hadn’t taken long for him to simply brush it off because of course she didn’t remember; from her perspective it had never happened at all. But now here she was admitting she remembered those events… how was that even possible? Did that mean that there was some sort of reality where those seven years had still happened? Had he not fixed even that?

He shook his head sharply, snapping himself back to the present. It had taken some two or three centuries just to get over his regret for not passing on his skills, and he’d be damned if he let either of them get dragged back into that terrible cycle of self deprecation. “Hey,” he said softly, pulling away slightly so that he could see her face “if I don’t get to keep apologizing for, well everything, then you don’t get to do it either. You… you thought you were doing what was best back then. You hadn’t had a lot of options on how to stop Ganondorf, since no one would listen to you. And as for me… well I didn’t belong in the forest, and I didn’t belong in that future really, either. A nine-year-old kid running around in a sixteen-year-old body in a constant state of confusion and panic… I don’t blame you for sending me back really.”

“Yes..” she admitted, her gaze lowering to the ground. “I didn’t tell you back then because I didn’t want to you to worry about me..” she confessed, feeling even more guilty. “I should have told you anyways, but I didn’t know if you would believe me because the memories slowly came back in the form of dreams..” she sighed. “I’m..I’m sorry for keeping it a secret for so long..” she whispered, her ears lowering slightly as tears once again began to prick the corners of her cheeks.

“I…” Link faltered, tears threatening to fall from his eyes again. He adjusted his grip so that one arm stayed wrapped around Zelda’s back, and the other rose to comb his fingers through her soft, silky hair at the back of her neck. “I knew… somehow… that it wasn’t going to end with me. Somehow that… that man was going to come back and threaten Hyrule again. And I…” Link let out a long sigh, his fingers stilling. After a moment he continued, quieter and tiredly “…I just felt like I hadn’t done enough. Like there was so much more I could have done to stop him, and I hadn’t realized it until it was too late.”

Link sniffed, the tears finally escaping his eyes once more. For so long he’d been trapped by his regrets- he wasn’t even sure how long he’d been here anymore. Certainly more than a hundred years… maybe two hundred… three hundred? He didn’t want to think about it, doing so just made his heart break even more. How had she been here this whole time, and he never noticed? He buried his face in her hair once more, kissing the top of her head gently as he wrapped his arm around her back again. His voice broke on small sobs as he continued “I’m so sorry Zelda. I’m so sorry. I thought… I thought that if I could just, just give whoever came after me some advice, just give him anything that might help, then maybe I’d have done some good. I… oh goddesses, you’ve been all alone and I never… I’m so sorry.”

Link rocked back a half step at the sudden embrace, but did not hesitate to wrap his arms around her. His fingers splayed across Zelda’s back as he crushed her to his chest, holding her as tightly as he dared. His heart broke as he felt more than heard her sobs, and Link curled around her tighter and dropped his head to bury his nose in her hair. 

He nuzzled her as he continued to hold his princess, turning his lips to her ear so he could softly soothe her. “Shhh, it’s ok Zelda… it’s ok… I’m right here. I’m right here… I’m here, and I’m never ever going to leave you again. Shhh, don’t cry my love.” Link started rocking them gently from side to side as he continued to whisper apologies and reassurances in her ear, still holding her close.

Her sobbing eventually began to quiet down and subside as Link gently soothed her. “I...I never thought I would see you again..” she whispered, her face still buried into his shoulder and therefor her voice was somewhat muffled, but still audible enough to make out what she was saying to him.